More Lovable Features of the Galaxy Samsung S lll

I’m continuing my list of cool and wonderful discoveries with the Galaxy S lll. We start at Home, in this case, the Home Button.

Some people have expressed dislike for the hard Home button vs a capacitive button, but I like the Home button. I can wake up the phone by pressing it – especially useful when the phone is on a desk. I don’t have to pick it up to get the screen. As I may have mentioned in the previous article pressing the Home key and the Power button simultaneously captures the current screen. Holding down the Home button for a moment beings up the Task manager and lists all the apps currently running. You can swipe certain apps off and tap on an app to go right to it.

And, of course, you can tap the Home button once when the phone is open and immediately get to your assigned Home Page. This can be assigned by pinching your fingers on any screen so you see all seven screens miniaturized on one page. Tap the small “home” icon found on the upper right of one of the little screens and that is your Home page. By default screen 4 – the middle one – is Home, but you can certainly change it to of the others.

Some people seem worried that the mechanical Home Button will wear out as opposed to a capacitive button. Well, I don’t recall the Power button on any phone I’ve had ever wearing out so I’m not sure that is a realistic complaint. I like the versatility of this arrangement.

Ok, I’m not sure if this feature is new to the OS but I’ve just noticed that when in the Calendar app I can zoom in from Year view view to the the Month and Day view by “pinching” the screen. And going the other way I just UN-pinching, if that’s a word.

It’s one of the many really cool Gesture features of this phone. For example, when you are playing a video and you want to find a frame tap that blue Play Line. If you hold your finger there the time stamp will appear in a box.

Now, put the film in pause. Slightly roll your finger tip back and forth on the Blue time line and the film will move up a frame. It takes a bit of practice. But this is a great way to find that particular frame you want and then take a Screen Capture.

And as we are on the subject of video play: every time you add a movie to your phone, either from the camera, USB, store, whatever….12 chapters are constructed. You can access them via the menu while in the Movie app. Every movie no matter how short gets 12 “Chapter Previews“. And here’s the really cool part: you can’t tell from this screen capture but all twelve of those chapter previews are animated. Wow, that’s fun. And it makes perfect sense because if you are trying to locate a particular part of a film it helps to have more clues than 12 stills. Plus, some chapters could start out in black which, of course, reveals nothing. Yup, I love this!

Another cool Gesture feature: while playing a video or song you can cover the screen with your palm or turn over the phone to face your desk to pause/mute. Of course you have to turn this on in the preferences/Motions/ Turn over to mute/pause and Palm touch to mute/pause. They both work without the headset on. When you have the headset plugged in only your palm against the screen will mute the sound. Not sure why turning the phone over doesn’t. Of course, with the headset plugged in you also have the Play/Pause button.

Connected to the headphones that come with the phone, there’s a single pause/play button and another long button that controls the volume. One press of the play/pause button will pause the music, two presses in quick succession will skip to the next track. The buds are very soft and VERY comfortable and really block out external sounds very well. The sound is crisp during a call and very clear when listening to music and films. You also get extra buds in different sizes to fit your ears perfectly. They are all really soft.

During a call, you will notice a speaker icon screen next to the Contacts picture. Tap it to increase the call volume past the maximum setting. However, what is cool is being able to finesse the sound quality. When in phone mode (keypad) tap Menu / Call Settings/In-call sound EQ settings/

Plus you can choose Personalize EQ. Tap on that to go through some tests which will really personalize the sound experience.
Now, THIS feature is not only cool, it’s Soooooo Satisfying. Everyone hates getting calls from telemarketers or even those people who keep calling the wrong number. So while in callmode access the CallSettings / Call rejection / Turn ON and anytime you wish to block a number go to Phone / Logs / call logs and hold your finger over the offending phone number. When the menu pops up select “add to reject list”. Hee hee hee

. Anytime that number tries to waste your time the phone will automatically reject it and you won’t even hear it ring. If you accidentally block a number and wish to release it from phone jail just access the Call menu – Auto reject list. Scroll through your list and uncheck the number.

what I love about WiFi:
Yes, like other Android devices it senses whatever a WiFi signal is around. What has happened in the past when I walked into my favorite coffee shop where the WiFi is free but you have to log in, I’d have to exit Notifications then get to the browser and wait for the browser to find the log in page. Well, the Galaxy S lll not only let’s me know on the notification bar that the WiFi signal is found I get another nice Notification on the bar asking if i wish to log in.

“Sign in to WiFi Network”

I tap that and I’m brought immediately and automatically to the browser. I don’t have to go looking for the browser (that I can choose if more than one is installed)

In the last article I mentioned that I love the updated Swype. Much easier for me to use and get almost all the words correct. It capitalizes “I” automatically. When there is a double letter in a word I don’t have to do anything weird to make the software understand that. In other words it types “keep”, not “kep” and all I have to do is drag my finger around “k”, “e” and “p”. It generally predicts my words correctly and when it doesn’t I just type it out. If you double-tap a word you want to edit, it should highlight the word and then let you Swype a new word on top of it.

Of course there are times when you have a name or odd word that Swype just can’t seem to guess right. you can’t add words to the dictionary while you are writing text.

I’ve installed this on nearly every device I’ve had and even though it’s over my head I love feeling like I am part of this great adventure.

The Samsung Galaxy S lll has lots of features and complex preferences. But it adds real functionality and it’s worth a trip round that world. Just take your time and eventually all of this magic will unfold.

A talented and Emmy-winning digital special effects technician by trade, Cecilia has also made her mark over the years as a writer in video editing magazines. Her CV includes HBO’s "From the Earth to the Moon" and SciFi Channel’s "Frank Herbert's Dune" and "Children of Dune". The most recent Visual Effects work was done for an online film: "Eye of the Bennu". This project was notable for being the first film made entirely by people only communicating over the Internet. No one has ever actually met in person. A virtual film made by virtual people. Cecilia is currently making props for a short film project about a violent monk. Hmm.